I Am A Fan of KPop Now

 Having kids is, as anyone with kids knows by now, a pretty life-altering experience. In some tiring ways, in some difficult ways, mostly in some awesome ways. What I didn't expect however was that my kids would bring me into whole new hobbies.

Usually it is the other way around, or so I thought. As an adult you already have your hobbies, and you will do your darndest to make sure your kids love your things too. I am no different, I have tried to get my kids to love things like Pokémon (that wasn't so difficult), board games (that hasn't really worked so far) and hiking (they are converts). But it turns out my kids are their own people, with their own interests.

So it is that when my son turned out to be interested in birds, I started to get interested in them too. Now we regularly go on bird-watching events together, and I might even be more into birds than he is. 

My daughter has turned out to be into singing and dancing, which I don't mind doing every now and then either. But then we ended up watching a movie called KPop Demon Hunters (KDH), I am sure you have heard about it by now. It seems impossible to have missed it, it has been a complete (K)pop culture phenomenon and a huge success for Netflix and the Kpop community.

Prior to KDH I had heard of Kpop, of course. I had even listened (a lot) to Psy, and of course the awesome Bar Bar Bar by Crayon Pop, so I wasn't completely unknowing about what it was about. I knew there was a band called... BTS? I had never heard any of their songs, knowingly, and overall I didn't think most Kpop was my thing.

But the songs in KDH got me bopping my head. And normally I would've probably just seen the movie, thought it was better than I had expected and moved on. But my kid didn't allow me to let it leave my headspace, constantly singing and listening to the songs from the movie.

Eventually my brain gave in and I thought to myself - ok, let's find out a little bit more about this Kpop stuff, there must be something out there worth listening to, something similar to KDH.

So I looked up videos on Youtube listing "best Kpop songs of year so-and-so" or "top 100 Kpop songs".

Almost none of them appealed to me. Out of all the songs I listened to I ended up adding only two to my regular playlist - Very Nice by Seventeen and Mirotic by TVXQ. They are... ok. Slightly above the rest, but nothing special.

Then a new song with a new band popped up in my feed. Ready 2 Rumble with All (H)ours. I clicked it, as one does and... I liked it. I liked pretty much everything about it. The song was good, the energy from the group was great, the dance routine was awesome. This group had piqued my interest. Next time they showed up in my feed, with another song, I decided I wanted to listen to that too, Gimme Gimme Gimme. And that was even better, in almost every way. Ok, they were 2 for 2. Then I found another song, Shock, better again.

My daughter loved them too, so it became a thing we could listen to together. We love pretty much every song they've released in their short 2 year existence. And maybe I get it now. I never used to be a fan about much when I was a kid or a teenager. I had Legolas as my desktop picture and I used to swoon over Vincent Valentine in FFVII, but I had no idols or stars on posters on my walls. I sort of skipped that phase, and definitely didn't think I would find a new thing to fan about at the age of 40. But now I can see it through the eyes of my kid and it is quite enjoyable. 

Long story short, you should go out and watch birds and definitely listen to All (H)ours while doing it.

Other must listens by All (H)ours;

Livin La Vida Loca
Good Job
Graffiti
Psycho Mantra
Bout That Issue
Blah Blah
Wao Wao
Racer